Dedolight, professional portable lighting anywhere

The Dedolight portable lighting studio provides us with all the power of the brand's popular lighting sources in a suitcase compact enough even for a single person. Lighting kits from other manufacturers weigh up to three times as much and are at least three times the size without offering anywhere near the same potential.

As the director of photography and director, Julio Gómez, states in his blog, “good lighting should be savored… like good cuisine.” But what happens when you have to light in situations with very little time or outside of professional sets? Dedolight has the solution.

Your portable lighting studio provides us with all the power of the fabulous Dedolight lighting sources in a suitcase compact enough for even one person. Lighting kits from other manufacturers weigh up to three times as much and are at least three times the size without offering anywhere near the same potential.

There are four versions of the portable studio with three, four five and six sources, with the five being the most used. With a maximum weight of 20 kilos (therefore suitable for checking in with any airline) and a suitcase that easily withstands being thrown from various heights or jumped on without any of the objects it contains being damaged (lamps included), the versatility of these kits is unparalleled in the current industry.

Dedolights distribute even light perfectly across the illuminated area at all focus positions, without hot spots or bright rings. They also emit a pure, clean, very defined beam without stray lights. To soften the edges of the beam, any of the 23 different diffusion gelatins offered by the Munich manufacturer can be adapted (not included in the kits).

Typologies

As main light: the softlight system (with its corresponding grid) based on a 150w DLH source. It offers a unique, soft and completely uniform light without hot spots on the diffuser or vignetting (common in all other softboxes). The light output of each of these sources is higher than that of a traditional 500w one.

Studio luminaires of comparable size offer a focusing range (intensity change at the center of the illuminated area) of approximately 3:1. Dedolights operate at 25:1, allowing for much greater variation between the widest and narrowest beam, superior light output and a considerable improvement in accuracy. The range is also extended so it is possible to place the light further out of the plane while people move around the illuminated area with hardly any changes in the intensity of the light.

In all Dedolight softlights, the true light source is at the focal point of the diffuser. This is how they manage to double the light output compared to traditional softboxes in front of a studio luminaire. As if that were not enough, this softlight incorporates a glass reflector that further reinforces the light output and improves its distribution.

Fill light: again we will use the same type of source but with a mini softbox. Depending on the final destination of our images (cinema, TV, photography, etc...) and the character we want to give them, we can opt for a 1:2 ratio between the main and fill light (typical in TV) or a larger ratio to illuminate in a more dramatic way (typical in cinema). In both cases the color temperature is switchable to 3400K and 3200K or completely variable at our will.

Backlight: It should separate your subject from the background creating an illusion of depth. For this, a source whose color temperature is slightly colder than the rest is usually advisable. A DLH4 can be switched to work at 3400K without using any type of filter. Due to its enormous focal range and various control accessories, it is possible to partially lower the intensity in defined areas of the image that would otherwise be too bright or to place defined accents in darker areas. The clean beam prevents stray light from entering the camera lens. The possibility of focusing, cropping and varying the intensity of the light means that we can illuminate subtly, without the negative effects being too obvious. A flexible foot extension allows the source to be placed closer to the subject without the foot appearing flat.

Control light (“Kicker”): Although the canonical lighting triangle is made with the three preceding sources, this fourth can be added in the least illuminated area of ​​the face to reinforce its plasticity and dimensionality or as extra modeling light. As with backlight, controlling the intensity and color temperature is essential to obtain the desired look.

The backlight: Before using it, it is important to place a grid over the main light softbox to avoid stray lights on the background. Then we can use a DLH4 to create the shadows that interest us in the image with complete precision or place a DP1 projection mount and use gobos, slides or gelatins as a background image (there are more than 300 possible variations). The DP1 allows you to focus or defocus the image. This last option is ideal for accentuating the separation between the subject and the background when recording with cameras with small sensors, thus giving our image a more cinematic appearance by simulating less depth of field.

This is the theory but as Julio Gómez states, "the only completely true rule in lighting is that there are no rules. The incredible versatility of Dedolight's portable studios will allow you to create all types of scenes without necessarily following the traditional scheme." He explains it to us in this new, and fun, Tuttorial recorded for Grau Luminotecnia.

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